Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GRANDMAMMA'S LECTURE, by HENRY CHAPPELL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GRANDMAMMA'S LECTURE, by                    
First Line: Grandmamma sits in her high-backed chair
Last Line: With her sweetheart, when she was a girl.
Subject(s): Grandparents; Old Age; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


GRANDMAMMA sits in her high-backed chair
Knitting, as busy can be;
Then the needles stop and she smoothes her hair
And frowns as she speaks to me.
I can't think what you girls are coming to—no,
With your skirts so high and your necks so low;
You smoke and you flirt and you whiz and you whirl;
We were much more proper when I was a girl.

And hark ye, Miss Romp; on the Sabbath day
To church we always went;
Now its the river, or foolish play
With sticks with the handles bent;
And the hussies encourage the men, they do,
And make brazen eyes, what you call goo-goo;
You needn't sit there with your fingers atwirl,
We never behaved so when I was a girl.

Then I kiss the old lady's frown away,
Pick up her stitches, and then
Ask her how she came to be wed one day
If she never encouraged the men.
But grandmamma's head is nodding slow
And shaking each silver curl,
As she walks in dreams thro' the long ago
With her sweetheart, when she was a girl.





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